There’s nothing quite like watching an old flame depart for the final time — the inevitable, sparkling rush of memories, the way shared experiences suddenly rise and flicker through the veins. It’s a setting Freya Ridings captures beautifully in “Lost Without You,” an exquisitely crafted pop ballad that cuts straight to a tender place. Between delicately sprinkled piano chords, the UK songstress repurposes heartbreak into soaring yet pained clarity, each billowy confession taking on deeper resonance until a final, cloying reminder that her own decision started it all.
Major and minor chords weave along a path lined by trees bursting with red and orange leaves in Night Flight’s“Death Rattle.”
A breakup song through and through, this track from the London-based 5-piece is perfect for a long, contemplative drive. With winter on its way, the season of ends and cold quiet, this song resists the brutal frost, opting for a brisk fall breeze instead.
While the end of a relationship could feel like the end of the world, there’s the other side of the coin that signals a new and better beginning. “Death Rattle” is that warm fall light, a realization that ending things will lead to a breath of crisp, fresh air into the lungs.
“Don’t go wasting your breath on me… better we find a way out, not dwelling on why,” frames the first verse, followed soon by, “I’m not living anymore, baby give me something more.” Laid back drums and a comfortably simple bassline pad the finger-picked guitar part. “Ooh’s” and soft harmonies complete the folksiness of this bittersweet track that basically says that enough is enough, and it is time to move on.
It seems like kind of a given that one of my favourite music videos of the year so far would feature weird tarot-type cards, an array of pantsuits and a cult leader. In addition, it also accompanies a slice of low-key, sultry pop from London musician Nilüfer Yanya, so I’m not sure how any millennial human could resist.
The music video for “Thanks 4 Nothing,” Yanya’s latest single, is grainy and surreal, starring her as a person who may or may not be a charismatic cult leader, and lots of mid-century modern furnishings. It looks fantastic, and its lack of over-the-top drama compliments the mood of the track exactly; evocative rather than in-your-face, bubbling from beneath with a sense of power and pressure.
The impeccable taste on display here is yet another reason to keep an eye on this artist as she makes her inevitable ascent – and let’s face it, there probably won’t be a more understatedly zeitgeist-y visual than Nilüfer Yanya draped in a red dressing gown casting a hand over some magic cards this year.
Across 19 tracks in just 40 minutes, Goat Girl’s self-titled debut creates a half-fantasy world out of a very dirty, ugly city reality. In the group’s words: “Simply put, it’s an album that comes from growing up in London and the first hand experience of our city’s devolution. We wanted to think of it as this place seen not necessarily just through our eyes, but someone who can’t get past the abnormalities and strange happenings that exist in our city. We think this gives the freedom lyrically and musically to explore unspoken truths and emotions that we all as humans feel.”
Goat Girl belong to a burgeoning, close-knit south London scene, born in venues like The Windmill and including bands like Shame, Bat-Bike, Madonnatron, Horsey, Sorry, and many more. “We help each other – I put you on, you put me on – because we genuinely like each other’s music. We’d played gigs all over before but never really settled in a comfortable environment, which is what The Windmill is. It’s an important place for us, it was the first space that our music made sense to exist within. It’s a safe space where music is genuinely listened to and appreciated, and where laws and licensing haven’t reached over to ruin the venue.”
This live freedom enabled the band to think without constraints when it came to recording. Goat Girl enlisted producer Dan Carey (The Kills, Bat For Lashes, Franz Ferdinand) to help them capture their vision, set a goal to write and record a piece of music in a day in effort to capture that raw first-creation moment, and chose to record to tape. “We wanted it to have a similar expression to our live sets and so knew from the start that a tape-based approach would work for us. There’s less awareness of trying to achieve perfection as you can’t edit out mistakes and so you allow them to occur instead. It felt like a really relaxed and natural environment, and you can hear the comfortability in the energy of our sound. Recording to tape also meant that we were able to get the foundations of each song down very quickly, and there was a lot more thought put in to the pre-production of the album, as well as how we would allow the songs to flow in a cohesive manner from one to the next to create a story, rather than an album made up of singles.”
It’s a very English album — sharp-eyed observations like The Kinks, louche rage like The Slits — but it’s also full of swampy, swaggering guitars and singer Lottie’s filthy drawl. “It wasn’t exactly intentional to have this warped country sound, but I think that was initially what we were all drawn to and inspired by, bands that existed in a lo-fi, dissonant, scratchy context.” Each member brings a diverse range of influences and contributions, ranging from krautrock to bossa nova, jazz to blues. They resist being boxed in to an indie, guitar-based genre, and focused intensely on the layers and textures of each song as well as the different contexts they could sit within. “It seems all too easy to exist in that kind of world with the instrumentation of our band, and so now was our chance to transcend that feeling. The joy of working in Dan’s studio is that you’re surrounded by these possibilities to sound more electronic, with such a vast array of different analog synths and sounds to choose from…to be able to experiment and evolve with our music in the recording process has allowed us different possible future routes for our music to take.”
The result, Goat Girl, succeeds in conjuring a complete world all unto itself, and is arranged in segments — divided by improvised interludes — that offer glimpses of an even stranger parallel universe. With each song acting as its own story of sorts that features different settings and characters, listeners are transported therewithin. It’s dark yet cheeky, varied yet cohesive, and striking in its vision; this world is populated by creeps and liars, lovers, dreamers, and wonderful lunatics. Lead single “Cracker Drool” is at once jaunty and sinister, a foreboding tale full of swirling guitar, echoing vocals and synthetic drum hits that stumbles and gurgles straight into “Slowly Reclines,” an equally menacing and considerably heavier track. “Creep” is, predictably and grimly enough, inspired by actual events: Creep on the train / I really want to smash your head in. “You want to think you could stand up for yourself in that kind of situation,” says Lottie. “But then a lot of the time a quiet politeness takes over and you act like nothing has happened – even though in your head everything has happened. I think the purpose for a lot of the lyrics in the songs is to act out that power role that isn’t necessarily a truth, but the freedom of writing gives you that sense.”
On “Country Sleaze,” she sings about sex in a way that embraces visceral reality and defeats shame. “If you say you’re sexually free, as a woman, society still deems that a bad thing. But really it’s a beautiful thing to be confident in yourself – to know that you can have sex and it doesn’t have to mean anything and that doesn’t make you a bad person.” Ellie smiles: “That song is quite disgusting, in a good way. It’s not trying to be nice, it’s not a love song.” Goat Girl is altogether an album crafted with intention, and invites imaginations to run wild; it draws listeners in to its half-fantasy world from the slow fade, eerie instrumental intro “Salty Sounds,” to the gorgeous, unsettling closer “Tomorrow” –– a rendition of the song featured in Bugsy Malone — which ends with dawn-chorus birds and the feeling of new possibilities after a long and messy night.
London’s most thrilling new band Goat Girl – aka Clottie Cream, Rosy Bones, Naima Jelly and L.E.D – have announced that their debut, self-titled album will be released on 6th April! (violet coloured vinyl + a limited edition signed fanzine art and lyrics booklet available from Rough Trade webstore).
To whet your appetite, the fourpiece have unleashed the official video for their killer new single and longtime live favourite “The Man”, directed by CC Wade and described by the band as “a parody on fandom and a delve into the male psyche”
‘Goat Girl’ was produced by fellow South Londoner Dan Carey in in the Autumn of 2017. It’s a very English album – sharp-eyed observations like The Kinks, louche rage like The Slits – but it’s also full of swampy swaggering guitars and singer Clottie’s filthy drawl. In the group’s words: “Simply put, it’s an album that comes from growing up in London and the first-hand experience of our city’s devolution. We wanted to think of it as this place seen not necessarily just through our eyes, but someone who can’t get past the abnormalities and strange happenings that exist in our city. We think this gives the freedom lyrically and musically to explore unspoken truths and emotions that we all as humans feel”.
Spawned within the burgeoning, close-knit South London scene that includes Shame and Sorry, and having supported the likes of The Fall, Fat White Family and Parquet Courts, Goat Girl are something to behold live!
Born and bred in the capital, 26-year-old Michael Jablonka has been gigging since the tender age of 14, always previously as part of a group or as an in-demand guitarist for hire. Those to have enjoyed his dextrous services include Charlie Brown, Stooshe, Shakka, Delta Maid. Last summer, Jablonka decided it was time to blaze his own trail as a bandleader and songwriter, collating a set of crack musicians and classy songs that prove his gift for crafting a tune is as great as his mastery of the six string. Together that makes for intense yet universal alternative rock’n’soul tunes that scream for wider appreciation.
While Michael Jablonka is already an established musician behind the scenes (being guitarist for MichaelKiwanuka amongst others), his step into the limelight as solo artist is something you do not know you crave until you hear it. The raw and energetic rock guitar music is the kind of refreshing sound the music world lacks lately and Jablonka is here to change that .
Bushstock festival, the annual one day event that takes place in West London, have announced their first acts for 2018. Aquilo, Billie Marten, Flyte, Haus and Stereo Honey, are amongst the first artists to be revealed who will be performing on Saturday June 23rd at various venues in Shepherd’s Bush.
AQUILO + BILLIE MARTEN + FLYTE + FREYA RIDINGS + HAUS + MAISIE PETERS + MATT WOODS + STEREO HONEY + THE BEACH More to be revealed over the coming weeks.
Based out of South East London, Mathilde Bataillé is a 20-year-old French musician who shows an extremely powerful sound on “No Man is an Island”, which we’re thrilled to premiere. Her latest single is dubbed as a “6-minute-long Dionysian epic” — its lyrics powerfully capturing the emotional essence of human nature and the related importance of empathy, complete with references to poets Arthur Rimbaud and John Donne.
Bataillé’s vocals are a powerhouse, beginning with a minimalist presence in retelling early mornings spent on empty streets, though quickly accompanied by rhythmic additions and more up-front guitars. “Is there such a thing as a divine connection?” she asks as the guitars rise, “Or are we all too ashamed of wanting this affection?” The heavy, affecting lyrics mesh with a strongly resonating melody, her vocals rising and falling in accordance to the beautiful rock-forward composition. This is an extremely successfully and emotionally resonating success from Mathilde Bataillé, whose rise seems imminent.
With their debut EP ‘Call Me Out’ released last year in June via Almanac Recordings, London-based four-piece Sea Girls share its title track- and we like it a lot. With loud jangly guitars, a baritone vocal not too dissimilar from ex-Chapel Club’s Lewis Bowman, a catchy earworm chorus and plenty of fuzzing energy, ‘Call Me Out’ has a big Maccabees-like vibe.
The band have had a lot of play on the BBC Music Introducing show, So far we’ve loved every single track they’ve put out so far. When you see a new Sea Girls track drop into your inbox, you just know it’s gonna be good! These lot are true masters of the indie pop anthem and this makes for some amazing singalong moments live, could be the band to see this summer festival season.
The Fat Angel Sings 