The Fat Angel Sings

Who is Doss? The question has popped up repeatedly on internet communities devoted to leftfield club music, but she’s never released much personal information. When she announced “4 New Hit Songs“, her first new EP in over seven years, the news read, simply, “It’s the music.” What is known about the New York/Baltimore producer and songwriter is that over the past decade she has occasionally worked as a DJ, released an EP (her 2014 self-titled debut), and made a few remixes. At first glance, “4 New Hit Songs” doesn’t offer much more information; its title seems intentionally generic, and its singles were accompanied only by cheekily opaque slogans. Yet, in its own way, “4 New Hit Songs” is revealing—an invitation to join Doss as she experiences life’s tribulations and the rapturous realizations that come from navigating hard times.

Despite the fogginess surrounding these songs, they’re clearly Doss’ most personal and intimate to date. “4 New Hit Songs” is built with the same forward-thinking sounds that filled her debut: gleaming trance refractions, shards of bubblegum house, and delicate wisps of shoegaze. And though her voice appeared on some of her previous songs, it never rang as clearly or resonated as deeply as it does here. The candy-coated club track “Look” sounds a little like Doss’ old friends and associates at PC Music—but even when it’s buoyant and bright, it feels insular and brooding, too. Over techno drum programming, she mutters about isolation and abandonment, about feeling watched and alone. She repeats the words “on my own” over and over until they begin to sound anxious, the insistence lending weight to a track that might otherwise have floated away with dancefloor euphoria.

Part of the joy of “4 New Hit Songs” is in just how much emotion it packs into its few tracks. “Puppy”—a song about rekindling feelings with a lost love—feels desperate yet hopeful, drifting through stormy rave beats as Doss sings in the distance about “holding on.” The title is a reference to a nickname given to her by an ex, a personal touch that mirrors the yearning in her voice. “Strawberry” too is misty and longing, built around an instrumental as breezy and blunted as Slowdive’s more electronic experiments, but it’s also comforting. Its chorus—“maybe this song won’t leave you”—underscores Doss’ slogan: “It’s the music.” In a world that feels overwhelming, maybe you don’t need more than a song to keep you company.

Released May 7th, 2021 on LuckyMe Recordings

Natalie Bergman announces the release of “Mercy“, her debut solo album on Third Man Records. Self-produced, performed and mixed in near-solitude, the twelve-song set takes a spellbinding step into Bergman’s singular world of sound, spirituality and the search for hope during tragic times. The journey began in October 2019; until then, she had been on tour since the age of 14. She spent the better part of the past decade singing lead alongside her brother Elliot Bergman in their duo Wild Belle, but the night she was about to hit the stage at Radio City Music Hall, her life changed. A coroner called with news that their father and stepmother had been killed by a drunk driver. 

Music and faith have always been at the forefront of the Bergman family, and rather than crawl into a cave of darkness and dread, Natalie decided to spend many days in silence at a monastery in the Chama Valley. It was there she learned she would embark on Mercy, and as she began writing and recording, the collection of songs channelled her cathartic reverence for traditional gospel music – in her words, the true source of rock and roll. 

Throughout her years in Wild Belle, the LA-based, Chicago-bred Natalie Bergman has collaborated with the likes of Elvis Costello, Major Lazer and Tom Tom Club, opened for Beck, Cage The Elephant and Toro y Moi, played Coachella, The Tonight Show and more. On “Mercy”, her sweeping spectrum of creativity is finally on full display, from the three-dimensional artwork seen in “Talk To The Lord,” to her striking sense of style and the best songs she says she’s ever written.

“Mercy” marks the first newly recorded gospel album to be released by Third Man Records. Helmed by Bergman’s heavenly voice, the music is steeped in mystic melodies, time-bending tones of psychedelic rock, soul and a spiritual healing that’s much-needed in the wake of 2020. “Mercy” was mastered by Warren Defever of His Name Is Alive, additional production comes from Elliot Bergman and Erik Hall, and vocal contributions include Elsa Harris and the Larry Landfair Singers, who Natalie sang with at her father’s funeral.

Released May 7th, 2021

Natalie Bergman’s debut solo album, “Mercy”, is out now

A cosmic combination of pop, country, and rock, the second album from Erin Mae sees the Wichita artist find herself. Born out of time spent on the road and during the pandemic, “Lighten Up” is a record that sees her diverse talents blossom into something entirely new.

Produced by Jonathan Wilson (Dawes, Father John Misty, Conor Oberst), Erin Rae’s highly anticipated new album “Lighten Up” is a timeless amalgam of classic pop, cosmic country and indie rock, recorded earlier this year in California’s Topanga Canyon.

Three years have passed since the release of her critically acclaimed debut “Putting On Airs“, which drew high praise from publications from Rolling Stone to NPR Music. She mostly spent her time on the road, performing at Newport Folk and Red Rocks, sharing stages with Iron & Wine, Jason Isbell, Jenny Lewis, Hiss Golden Messenger and Father John Misty, before her touring came to a sharp halt at the start of the pandemic. The solitude of the road and then the pandemic created space for Rae to undergo a sonic and philosophical shift where she found personal catharsis in creating an album that reflected on her newfound lessons of self acceptance, alongside finding the confidence to offer social commentary on the environment, gender identity and equality. “My last record was a lot of self-assessment and criticism, and trying to kick old habits and ways of relating and not relating to people,” Rae acknowledges. “This one is about blossoming, opening up, and living a little more in the present moment. Fully experiencing what it is to be human.”

With a renewed sense of agency, Rae also took a more active role in creating the kaleidoscopic soundscape that became “Lighten Up”, setting out to reflect a sound she calls, “an emotional pallet, I could get lost in.” Alongside Erin and Jonathan Wilson, who contributed various instruments, the album also features guest appearances from fellow rising star singer songwriters, Meg Duffy, Ny Oh, and Kevin Morby.

Metronomy announced the release of a new album, “Small World“, which will be out on February 18th, 2022 via Because Music. The band also shared an amusing video for their equally fun new single, “It’s good to be back.”. 

Frontman Joseph Mount speaks about the inspiration behind the new song’s title in a press release: “Part of me was thinking, ‘what is the lamest platitude people are going to be saying coming out of the past two years?,’ but at the same time, I was thinking how it will be true and how it might feel doing things again.”

He adds: “I’ve been remembering what it was like as a kid when I’d be sitting in the backseat of my parents’ car and they’d be playing their music and I’d think ‘this is awful,’ but there’d be one or two songs I would like. I thought it would be fun to make that kind of album, and this is the song the kids might like. This is the ‘cool’ song.”

The seventh album from the English indietronica act is a return to simple pleasures. “Small World” is a portrait of a band maturing with age and experience that still finds time for momentary bliss. A record that could care less about being cool, as long as you’re having fun.

Last year, the band surprise-released the EP Posse EP Volume 1. 

New album ‘Small World’ out 18th February

The fuzzed out jangle poppers return with a sophomore album that builds on the foundation of their predecessor. Instead of refining their sound, Empath goes the other way crafting something raw and alive, teetering on the edge of disarray. “Visitor” is the sound of a band in complete control of their chaos.

The second album by Empath is full to brim with gems that stick in your head. The sound is chaotic and raw but totally locked in. If you imagine Alvvays or Veronica Falls but produced by one of the Elephant 6 Collective then, then this is Visitor by Empath. In other words it’s magical!!.

Empath’s new single ‘Diamond Eyelids’ is out now on Fat Possum Records. Look our for their new album “Visitor” out February 11th, 2022.

Ask the members of Empath how things have changed since the release of their critically-acclaimed 2019 album, “Active Listening: Night on Earth“, and they’ll downplay it. Now, Empath release their sophomore full-length, “Visitor”, via Fat Possum Records, marking a seismic shift for the scrappy quartet who came up playing shows on Northeastern DIY circuits and now have just completed a tour with Modest Mouse. While the album holds steadfast to the careening, joyous noise Empath staked their name on, “Visitor” was produced by Jake Portrait, making it the first release the band has recorded with a producer in a formal studio.

Empath is Catherine Elicson, Garrett Koloski, Jem Shanahan, and Randall Coon.

Indie folk songwriter Cate Le Bon returns with a brand new stirring single “Moderation” which once again exemplifies her knack for creating an idiosyncratic sound and innovative style.

“Moderation” is a nod to the daily dilemma of trying to curb inherited and novel habits when you want to eat the moon and an essay written by the architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1958 that continues to kick hard. The video is filmed through a window of hers.”

The Welsh songstress’s baroque pop musings . Whereas its title conjures images of explosions and devastation, The new album “Pompeii” will be Le Bon’s sixth album is minimal and direct in its confrontations.  She might be paying Rough Trade NYC a visit soon.

“Moderation” will feature of Cate’s upcoming new album “Pompeii” which is scheduled for release on 4th February 2022 and promoted with unmissable headline shows in March.

In her book “Cool Town”, Grace Elizabeth Hale offers a history of the Athens, Georgia, music scene, how it came about, thrived and then served as a model for other towns beyond the pale (and free from the dilution) of the mainstream music industry. As an undergrad at the University of Georgia in the 1980s, Hale was immersed in the Athens music scene at its peak, when R.E.M., the B-52s, Pylon, Vic Chesnutt, Love Tractor, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies and many others ruled the roost.

Grace Elizabeth Hale is a historian and professor whose specialties are 20^th- century Southern history and various forms of cultural history, including photography, documentary film and music. She holds the august title of Commonwealth Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Virginia. But if you were to rewind back to 1982, you’d find Hale as a newly arrived student at the University of Georgia, where she became an enthusiastic observer and participant in the fun and fecund Athens, Ga., music scene.

That was the period of time and the place that she documents with intelligence and affection in “Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture”, published last year by the University of North Carolina Press. In the book, Hale makes a deep dive into the circumstances that germinated not only the two Athens bands known well to any sentient rock fan – R.E.M. and the B-52’s – but also many other deserving acts that acquired cult followings but didn’t find similar levels of national recognition, such as Pylon and Vic Chesnutt. The list of deserving acts that poured out of Athens during those years lends support to the audacious claim of the book’s subtitle.

Hale comfortably wears the dual hats of historian and fan as she guides readers through the streets, clubs, hangouts and record stores of downtown Athens, as well as the libraries and classrooms of the University of Georgia, where knowledge was gained and friendships were struck. Impeccably documented and well-argued, “Cool Town” is a fun read for any fan of alternative music and the era in which it rose out of such unlikely places as a Deep South college town to challenge the increasingly stilted status quo of mainstream rock in the late 1970s.

Perhaps the most surprising revelation to come out of “Cool Town” is that it wasn’t only David Bowie and Lou Reed who were taking a walk on the wild side by mingling music with gender-bending sexuality. One of the key figures on the Athens scene was Jerry Ayers, who was a musician, actor and writer but mainly someone who turned lifestyle into an artistic statement in its own right. As Hale writes, Ayers “modeled the essential bohemian act – he made his life into art.” Ayers moved from Athens to New York City in 1970 and, for a spell, became one of Andy Warhol’s “superstars,” transforming into the character Silva Thin. When he moved back to Athens, he subtly steered its bubbling underground scene.

Hale: “Life, he suggested by example, gained its meaning not from work or school but from aesthetic expression. In this way, [he] was more than a local star. He made Athens the place to be a star.”

Ayers’ story informs many of those that follow, including such seminal Athens bands as the B-52’s, R.E.M., Love Tractor and the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. The University of Georgia art department figures into the scene’s development as well. Some interesting mojo was transpiring in this out-of-the-way university town, predicated on high-toned aesthetic precepts, thrift-store bohemia, a love of rock music’s less-travelled byways and a feisty do-it-yourself spirit.

“Lammas Fair” is an album of transformation, movement and fluidity. One that encompasses landscapes, nature and wilderness and intertwines them with stories and characters that brings those places bursting to life. Much like the flow of water from the hills to the local towns near Parker that inspired ‘Return to the Sky’, Lammas Fair is an album that travels seamlessly, connecting worlds along the way.

The record was made in scattered sessions between 2020-21 and while Parker’s voice and guitar are the guts of the machine, the contributions from other players are key and elevate the album to a place that goes far beyond singer songwriter territory. Richard Curran adds delicate yet forceful presence with his violin and cello, the ghostly hum of the Fender Rhodes, flute and piano comes from Theo Travis, Hugh Bradley’s double bass dances quietly, Brendan Bache adds deft percussion work, Robert McNicholas’ bass work is both reserved yet rhythmic and Louis Berthoud’s drum work thoughtfully sets much of the pace and tone for it all to swirl around.

The album explores an intersection between past and present, using the groundwork of folk music set out decades and centuries ago and moving it into new terrain, as it explores ideas, themes and lyrics that explore both historic and contemporary settings. The title “Lammas Fair” refers to a historical annual celebration held across Europe on the 1st August, which heralded the first harvest of wheat.

While on his debut “Silent Spring”, Parker paid homage to guitar greats such as Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, here he’s evolved into a style that is distinctly his – a meeting between 60s and 70s folk music, the northern moorland landscape and the heavy metal background of his childhood. (2021) 

Psych-folk with a late 60s / early 70s flavour. If you like Nick Drake or Fairport Convention you will enjoy this. It’s an observation of change and a celebration of a hazy, high summer harvest. The music transports you to the moorlands and mill towns of Northern England. Dark and open and embellished with beautiful melodies and thoughtful lyrics.

Henry Parker – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Robert McNicholas – Electric Bass
Louis Berthoud – Drums
Hugh Bradley – Double Bass
Brendan Bache – Congas, Percussion
Theo Travis – Flute, Piano, Fender Rhodes
Richard Curran – Violin, Cello

Out on Cup and Ring Records 5th November 2021

Tori Amos doesn’t really do ‘bad’ albums, she went through a period 15 or so years ago when they were fairly challenging, with 15, 16, 17-track song-cycles that often felt hermetically sealed to all but her hardcore following. In recent times, a shift has been noticeable, and while she’s unlikely to be troubling the pop charts anytime soon, “Ocean to Ocean” is arguably her most commercial and ‘listenable’ work for some time. It’s a collection of songs in a variety of styles and sounds but it never feels overblown or dragged down by weighty concepts.

She say’s I can’t wait for you to listen to ‘Speaking with Trees’, which is the first song to be released from ‘Ocean to Ocean’. ‘Flowers Burn To Gold’ written for Tori’s late mother. The former boasts a full band arrangement with Tori’s production and arrangement skills brought to the fore, while the latter is the one and only time on the record that she keeps things simple with just voice and piano (to great effect).

Tori Amos released her new album, “Ocean To Ocean”. So far, we’ve heard “Speaking With Trees,” and now Amos has shared the lush, orchestral “Spies.” It’s actually a cheeky peek into the Amos home in Cornwall, England, where “bats and other creepy-crawlies terrorize” the singer’s daughter Tash. 

We have all had moments that can knock us down,” Amos has said about “Ocean To Ocean”, which primarily grapples with the singer’s lockdown experience. “This record sits with you where you are, especially if you are in a place of loss. I am fascinated when someone has gone through a tragedy, and how they work through their grief. That is where the gold is. When somebody is actually at that place, thinking ‘I’m done,’ how do you reach that person? Sometimes it’s not about a pill, or a double shot of tequila. It’s about sitting in the muck together. I’m going to meet you in the muck.”

Tori Amos‘ 16th studio album, “Ocean to Ocean”, is out digitally on 10/29 via Decca Records, and she’s shared the latest single, “Spies.” The nearly six minute orchestral pop track, Is when they found their way into their home in Cornwall during COVID lockdown, and it has the same gently mischievous feel of songs like Unrepentant Geraldines’ “Giant’s Rolling Pin.” .

‘Spies’ is fun, frothy and almost lightweight, ‘Devil’s Bane’ is sweaty and swaggering Americana, while ‘Metal Water Wood’ starts ponderously before falling off a cliff into a killer chorus; catchy and hypnotic with wonderful work from Matt Chamberlain on drums.

It’s apparent that “Ocean to Ocean” a very personal work and great though the previous album was (2017’s Native Invader), the songs’ meaning was not always clear. This time around, with no travel available for inspiration, the focus was closer to home and Tori wrote songs specifically for family members past and present, including herself, since ’29 Years’ reflects on her journey from her acclaimed solo debut, “Little Earthquakes“, in 1991.

Never one to shirk a challenge, Amos even casually rewrites ‘Happy Birthday’ as ‘Birthday Baby’ in a dramatic tango-style at the end.

“This is a record about your losses, and how you cope with them,” Tori says. “Thankfully when you’ve lived long enough, you can recognise you’re not feeling like the mom you want to be, the wife you want to be, the artist you want to be. I realised that to shift this, you have to write from the place where you are. I was in my own private hell, so I told myself, then that’s where you write from – you’ve done it before…”

A Decca Records Recording; ℗ 2021 Tori Amos, under exclusive licence to Universal Music Operations Released on: 2021-10-14

To be honest, and admit that the last two Crowded House outings – 2006’s “Time On Earth” and particularly 2010’s “Intriguer” – had left me with the feeling that I’d never really like another Crowded House studio album again (always a great live band). So when “Dreamers are Waiting” came along this year, I did approach it with a fair degree of trepidation and, at first, thought my worst fears were justified. The album initially felt too low-key, seemingly lacking the trademark big pop hooks and the song writing craft of yore. It rather drifted by, politely, without making its mark.

These first impressions were off the mark and the album revealed itself as a classic ‘grower’. The listeners’ persistence and patience is dutifully rewarded as “Dreamers are Waiting” unfurls its charms and presents its assets in a slow and controlled manner. The band reshuffle felt harsh on the excellent multi-instrumentalist Mark Hart (who found himself surplus to requirements), but the new line-up – Neil Finn; sons Liam & Elroy; original member Nick Seymour and the band’s classic-era producer Mitchell Froom (on keyboards) – works very well. In fact, everyone contributes in a song writing capacity to the excellent ‘Playing With Fire’, which is the second song on the 12-track album. ‘To The Island’ was the single, so you may well know that number, but the nostalgic and melancholic ‘Sweet Tooth’ already sounds like a classic.

But it’s on side two (in vinyl parlance) where the album really stretches its legs and impresses, with a wonderful run of songs, brilliantly arranged and performed. ‘Too Good For This World’ has the lo-fi charm of 1995’s FINN album (which makes sense, since this track is co-written by Neil and brother Tim) and ‘Start of Something’ drips with atmosphere, features some brilliant harmonies and offers a sublime chorus. Neil’s ‘Real Life Woman’ is arguably the best song on the record and rather punches you in the heart as it holds off it’s wonderful and simple chorus line for two long verses and it’s hard not to love the chaotic but charming ‘Love Isn’t Hard At All’.

This album was rather under-promoted in the UK and deserved more than it’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance on the UK chart (it peaked at #6). A COVID-delayed UK tour didn’t help and this record will possibly get a second wind next year when the band finally perform in Britain. Sublime.