The Fat Angel Sings

Tim Bettinson makes as Vancouver Sleep Clinic beautifully full of sounding music full of lush arrangement, here and there some bombast or just stillness and always the special voice of the Australian musician. After some cursory listening I quickly put fallen “Paradise” by Vancouver Sleep Clinic aside, but somehow the album continued to attract my attention and rightly so. This Australian musician has delivered a particularly beautifully coloured and surprisingly versatile sounding album. Tim Bettinson’s songs all sound timeless, but at the same time they also have a special sound of their own, which is largely determined by the high vocals.

“Fallen Paradise” the third studio album by Vancouver Sleep Clinic, which is another project by Australian musician Tim Bettinson. The Brisbane musician’s previous two albums which were mostly compared to Bon Iver’s music.

Tim Bettinson recorded “Fallen Paradise” together with producer Charlie Perry, who provided the album with a nicely groomed sound. This is Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s third album is an album that can’t just be pigeonholed. “Fallen Paradise” is an album that is remarkably spatially sound, where you can choose both subdued and atmospheric sounds or a much richer coloured sound with lush arrangements.

It is a sound that is partly electronic and partly organically coloured and that is certainly of a special beauty when choosing dreamy sounds. It all fits beautifully with the special voice of Tim Bettinson, who achieves remarkably high notes in his lashings, but who can also sing languidly and sultry.

Also in terms of genre, Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s is not an album that you just put a label on. The Australian musician opts for ambient sounds in the most subdued moments, but just as easily makes sultry pop with an edge of R&B, the true strength of the album lies in the fascinating way in which the tension is built up and in the special atmosphere that Tim Bettinson creates in his music.

Southampton based band The Weekend Punks play surf Pop. Reverb on everything, distortion on most things. It’s “Fuzzed out reverbed guitar work atop some lo fi 90’s styled drumming, with some chilled back beachside style vocals” . Weekend Punks are an indie rock band with elements of punk contained within their music – they released a new EP back in November, titled “Weekend Punks” EP. I loved the new wave vibes of the EP and wanted to share it with the world – make sure you check the EP out 

“The Theme From The Weekend Punks” is the first song on this three track EP, encapsulating their sound perfectly. Fuzzy surf rock guitar melodies are the name of the game here, with the track having a wonderfully upbeat melody and vocals .

“Backseat Driver” is the intermediary track, starting out a little slower than the previous song. The tempo soon ramps up with the introduction of the percussion, although the track does have quite a dreamy feel to it. The vocals have a sultry feel to them that slips and slides in between the music in a fabulous manner.

“Stay” is the final tune on this EP – I felt it had something of a garage rock vibe to it, in part due to the fuzzy guitars and drums that kick things off. The tempo is a little slower here than the other songs, but it sounds no less amazing. The backing vocals add a catchy element to proceedings, moving well with the lead vocals.

Written and recorded between Southampton (UK) and Reykjavik (Iceland), Weekend Punks play Surf Pop, but with relatively little experience of surf or sun. Reverb on everything, distortion on most things, and a nostalgia for places and times never visited.

Performed by:
Matthew Bayford (Guitars)
Rosie Blacher (Vocals)
David Fletcher (Drums)
Matthew Mead (Bass)

Released November 19th, 2021

Back in 2016, we put out our first release ever – 3 songs quietly written over an informal period of time that came to be collectively known as “Big Sprout“. Mac and I were about 21 or 22 years old when we first started getting together with our buddy Nick Corson to jam these out. I don’t know if any of us can recall exactly what these songs were about; we mainly just wanted to play in a band and drink beer while avoiding as much responsibility as possible. It was an appropriate time to do so, even if our approach to life was emblematic of the anxieties we did not want to ultimately acknowledge.

Last April, we went into the studio with our buddy Ross Farbe to quickly record four new songs before my daughter’s due date a month later. Aptly named “Bigger Sprout”, these songs are the culmination of years of heavy drinking, partying, disassociation, jadedness, political discussions, and constant talks about moving somewhere else.

But unlike some of the things we talked about in our last two records, the driving force behind these songs was embracing change and new surroundings as a positive part of adulthood.
Included in “Bigger Sprout” which features Hunter Keene on drums – are the three songs that constitute “Big Spout”. While the main catalyst to combine these 7 songs into one record was to give “Big Spout” the physical release it never received, there was the idea that the dichotomies in mood, tone, lyrical content, and intention would provide heavy contrast between both releases albeit reinforcing the idea that we are the same band. And that is fine.

So, thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy it. We hope to see you on the road soon.

released July 15th, 2022

Lawn is: Rui DeMagalhaes—Bass/Vocals Mac Folger—Guitar/Vocals

All songs written by Lawn

Songs created in the shadow of terror and loss, but that crackle and pop with defiance “Fear Fear” is a record made for agitating and dancing, for heart and soul, for here, now and tomorrow. It’s a record that explores juxtaposition; that of life and death, acceptance and isolation, environment and humanity, hope and despair, the real world and the digital world. That top to bottom rigour, the complete vision is what makes the second album from Working Men’s Club such a stunning and unique achievement.

Working Men’s Club simultaneously embody the terror that the world will implode at any second while celebrating the fact that we’ve made it to another day in this strange dystopia that we live in on their latest album, “Fear Fear”. A dark-wave record that isn’t afraid to dance on thin ice, it examines the precarious position we’re in with both dread and jubilation. The zapping, Kraftwerk-esque synthesizers and deadpan vocal delivery have an ‘80s retro-futuristic varnish.

Deeming it “a record made for agitating and dancing, for heart and soul, for here, now, and tomorrow,” Working Men’s Club fuses industrial beats with the human tendency to grapple with the existential question “Who are we and where are we headed?” 

Their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, released in summer 2020, was the sound of singer and songwriter Syd Minsky-Sargeant processing a teenage life in Todmorden in the Upper Calder Valley. He was 16 when he wrote some of those songs, now he is 20, he had to get up and out of the Valley. “The first album was mostly a personal documentation lyrically, this is a blur between personal and a third-person perspective of what was going on. “Fear Fear” documents the last two years. Yes, there is bleakness – but there is also hope and empathy. “I like the contrast of it being happy, uplifting music and really dark lyrics. It’s not a minimal record, certainly compared to the first one. That’s because there’s been a lot more going on that needed to be said.”

Released 15/07/22 via Heavenly Records

DIIV’s first three singles from 2011 are now available on streaming services for the first time ever. we are reissuing them in a box set in august, physical pre-orders and digital downloads are available here: https://diiv.bandcamp.com/album/sometime-human-geist

Before “Oshin”, there was ‘Sometime,’ ‘Human,’ and ‘Geist’… In 2011, a newly formed DIIV (known, at the time, as ‘DIVE’) created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut single ‘Sometime’; finding its way onto the esteemed pages of Pitchfork a mere matter of weeks after the group’s formation. They quickly followed it up with the equally great ‘Human’ and ‘Geist’, with the latter featuring a b-side cover of Kurt Cobain’s “Bambi Slaughter.”

These very first offerings from DIIV chemically fused the reminiscent with the half-remembered, building a musical world out of old-air and new breeze. These are songs that remind us of love in all it’s earthly perfections and perversions, and work that ultimately put DIIV on the map, leading the way for the band to become a central influence on the sound and aesthetic of the 2010s Brooklyn indie music scene.

Now, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of their seminal debut album “Oshin”, all three 7”s will be repressed for the very first time since their original release.

DIIV: “Looking back, these 7”s were really the thing that propelled the band into existence and pushed us to realize “Oshin” in the first place. This type of retrospective project wouldn’t feel complete without them.”

So it hasn’t got the same fire that powered Flasher’s near-flawless run of 2016’s self-titled EP and 2018’s “Constant Image”. So what? Intuition is often more a subtly powerful tool than any in-your-face call-to-action, and the D.C. band’s sophomore release “Love is Yours” is, in its own understated way, a remarkable testament to the wisdom of keeping your own counsel. As guitarist Taylor Mulitz and drummer Emma Baker sing together on the record’s opening track “I Saw You”: “Self-respect is knowing the odds/ And seeing the cause and effect.”

Over 13 meticulously designed, strikingly self-assured songs, Flasher now a duo of Mulitz and Baker after the departure of bassist Daniel Saperstein preserve the funhouse colours of their previous incarnation while allowing those colours to bleed somewhat i.e. we’re still at the circus with all the balloons and elephants and stuff, but maybe everyone’s crying a little bit because it’s hard to have fun all the time and it’s okay to just want to go home. On “Love is Yours”, Flasher feels weightless. The band’s 2018 debut, “Constant Image“, was a triumph – a set of songs both dizzy and explosive, balancing new-wave lushness and post-punk frenzy. “Love is Yours” steps up the ambition and reaches for the horizon. The record is ablaze with mood, melody, and carefully threaded hooks, finding the band foregrounding the pop sensibilities that had always been present in their previous releases.

Yes, the band could’ve leaned hard into post-punk predictability and done very well; however, such artistic cowardice in service of mass appeal would have been even more tragic in the long run than losing a band member in the short term, regardless of what the bores of the world have to say about it right now.

released June 15th, 2022 Domino Recording Co Ltd

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Interpol’s debut album, “Turn on the Bright Lights“, but the band are looking forward too with the release of their seventh album. They made it with Flood and Alan Moulder, whose combined credits include My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails and U2, to name three. Says guitarist Daniel Kessler, “The process of writing this record and searching for tender, resonant emotions took me back to teenage years; it was transformative, almost euphoric. I felt a rare sensation of purpose biting on the end of my fishing rod and I was compelled to reel it in.”

Interpol have released their seventh studio album, “The Other Side of Make-Believe“, via Matador Records.

After beginning work on “The Other Side of Make-Believe” remotely, the band reunited at a rented home in the Catskills to begin fleshing out new material in early 2021. They completed it later that year in North London while reuniting with previous collaborator Alan Moulder, who co-produced the album with Flood.

“The Other Side of Make-Believe” also explores the more sinister undercurrents of the present day. Daniel Kessler’s serpentine guitar arrangements crest skywards in “Into The Night,” Samuel Fogarino shatters his percussive precision into strange meters, while Paul Bank’s vocals exudes a deep, yearning vulnerability.

due 15th July via Matador Records

Dawes’ new album “Misadventures of a Doomscroller” is due out July 22nd, and the latest single is “Comes in Waves,” which they’ve shared a new performance video for. “I had this riff and one of the verses for a while,” frontman Taylor Goldsmith says. “Griffin, Wylie and Mike Viola came over to my backyard – this was peak Covid – to just play music together for one of the first times since lockdown. I started sharing the song and Griffin and Mike started singing their background parts you hear on the choruses on the record immediately. It inspired me to finish writing it. The lyric is about the arbitrary demands I make on myself. I want to perceive me or my life a certain way but I make no exceptions for an off day or a misstep.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on being minimalists. With this record we set out on being MAXIMALISTS,” says Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith. “Still a quartet. Still not letting these songs hide behind any tricks or effects. But really letting the songs breathe and stretch and live however they want to. We decided to stop having any regard for short attention spans. Our ambitions go beyond the musical with this one. We also wanted to honour the traditional length of a vinyl record 40-45 minutes but disregard any concern for numbers of tracks. The way Miles or Herbie often did. Documenting the songs is only half of the picture. For this record, they’re also the platform for us to jump off from and get lost in. I think the best way I can say it is we wanted this record to be less a collection of songs and more a collection of music.”

Whether it’s a win or a loss, it’s all transient, and only when I can live in some version of that awareness – which is itself transient – am I able to bat away any fears or anxieties or the consequences of an over indulged ego.”

The official performance for Dawes’ new single “Comes In Waves”, off their upcoming new album ‘Misadventures Of Doomscroller’ releasing July 22nd, 2022.

Jack White will mark next week’s release of his second new album of the year, “Entering Heaven Alive“, with a pair of exclusive in-store appearances in London. On Friday, July 22nd, White will appear at East London’s Rough Trade East for an acoustic performance and signing, followed by a sold-out show at Union Chapel. The next day (July 23rd), White will perform three separate solo acoustic sets at Third Man London’s Blue Basement.

White has been writing and recording music throughout the entirety of the past several years, creating two entirely distinctive albums in “Fear Of The Dawn” and its follow up, “Entering Heaven Alive” each defined by different inspirations, different themes, different moods.”

“Entering Heaven Alive” is the fifth studio album from Jack White, founding member of The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather. True to his DIY roots, this record was recorded at White’s Third Man Studio throughout 2021, mastered by Third Man Mastering, and released by Third Man Records. Jack White after he released “Entering Heaven Alive”, his second album of 2022, The eccentric rock star and part-time upholsterer stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform “If I Die Tomorrow”. He also sat down with host Stephen Colbert for a segment called “Maybe Dropping Soon”, in which the two recounted imaginary collaborative albums concocted by the show’s graphics team.

“Entering Heaven Alive” follows White’s first LP of 2022, “Fear of the Dawn”, which he released in April. Each album has its own character, exemplified in the two different versions of the song “Taking Me Back” that appear on the albums.

Both albums were written in a burst of inspiration following an eight-month period of creative silence during the pandemic. White had wanted to release the two albums simultaneously, but was unable to manufacture enough vinyl records due to an ongoing shortage of vinyl.

“I started writing a lot of songs, and they were in all different directions: some incredibly heavy; almost some like speed metal; some sounded so gentle. I ended up with 20, 25 songs,” White told Rolling Stone. “People don’t respond well to double albums these days. I wanted to put them out on the same day, but there’s no way we could press all that vinyl and have them all out on the same day.”

Sadies frontman Dallas Good died in February but the band already had their new now final album in the can. They made it with Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and Good was clearly jazzed about it. “Do any bands make their best work this far along in their career,” Good wrote last fall. “I can think of artists who still make great music after all these years, but their best? Yet, here we are and that’s what I’m accusing us of.”

In preparation for the release, in October of 2021, Dallas penned what he coined the band’s “anti-bio” and seemingly said all there is to say about the new album, first noting, “Colder Streams is, by far, the best record that has ever been made by anyone. Ever.”

Produced by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and recorded between 2019 and 2021 at Skybarn in Montreal, The Sadies’ 11th album features 11 original compositions, with guest appearances by Jon Spencer, Michael Dubue, Parry, Margaret Good and Bruce Good. With a deep fondness and reverence for the best of CBGB — country, bluegrass and blues — The Sadies are equally informed and influenced by everything from ‘60s garage and psychedelic rock to surf instrumentals and punk rock. Since they first arrived on the North American scene 28 years ago, the Toronto-based roots-rockers have developed, even perfected, a style of music uniquely their own.”

“Colder Streams” by The Sadies: due 22nd July via Yep Roc Records