In keeping with the way Russack recorded her two 2018 albums she made with fellow Melbourne musician and great friend Lachlan Denton, over a year with Liam Halliwell and Dylan Young on hand, each track on the album was recorded in one take and live to tape at Phaedra Studies and mixed immediately thereafter by John Lee. Hence, not only its rusticity and fragility but also its immediacy and authenticity.
Emma gave us a taste of the album in the single What Is Love? late in 2018. Recorded for the short film An Athlete Wrestling a Python, Emma writes about the simplicities of love, asking “What Is Love?”. During the song she asks, “is it borrowing a t-shirt?” or is it “reading over shoulders?”. It is many things! Apart from the personal lyrical content, the other prevalent thing in the song is the piano taking the lead. It also does soon the new single Winter Blues. The four-and-a-half-minute single is the album’s centrepiece. Incredibly subtle and incredibly beautiful, the song floats in a sombre key, intermittently dotted by Russack’s contemplations, “blame it on the winter blues”.
The piano is also showcased on the album’s quieter moments: Like the Wind, Horses and the album’s stunning finale Never Before.
Small Pond Records are delighted to announce that they have signed Sydney, Australia-based art-folk virtuoso Bonniesongs, aka Bonnie Stewart, and will release her debut album “Energetic Mind” in the UK on 6th September 2019.
Bonniesongs the project of Sydney, based art-folk musician Bonnie Stewart, who will release her debut album on September 6th earlier this month she shared the album’s first single Ice Cream and today we hit back with her new single, “Barbara.”
Stewart shows a different side to her songwriting craft her, with a dark brooding atmospheric beginning that paves the way for her haunting folk vocals. This atmosphere makes sense when you learn a bit about the mindset she was in when writing the track as described by her below:
This track was inspired by re-watching the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead at a household movie night. I love zombie movies. I noticed how the main woman’s character was a weak crumbling mess that was almost completely useless in the chaos that was happening. Meanwhile, the men were pulling it together and saving everyone. This sort of inequality is typical of this era I guess, but is still annoying! Anyway, the song is mostly told from Barbara’s perspective…”
“I want the power in my music to come from lyrics and melody rather than trickery of the brain,” Marika Hackman said back in 2015, just before the release of her full-length debut We Slept At Last. Fast forward four years and one more album, and the singer-songwriter continues to live up to this promise on late single “i’m not where you are,” all about “breaking up with people, or self-sabotaging relationships,” as Hackman explains in a statement. Between her sultry, languorous delivery and synths that are at once toe-tapping and melancholic, the English artist once again crafts a powerful melody with lyrics that reveal a fraught emotional underbelly. Hackman adds that “i’m not where you are” meditates on “[t]hat feeling of not trusting one’s emotions because you can’t seem to get to the same place as the other person. On the surface, it seems like an arrogant ‘everybody falls in love with me’ kind of song but it’s actually incredibly lonely, introspective and self-deprecating.”
British singer/songwriter Marika Hackman is releasing a new album, Any Human Friend, on August 9th via Sub Pop. This week shared another song from the album titled, “the one,” which was the first song written for Any Human Friend.
It also might be Hackman’s catchiest song to date. In a press release Hackman concurs, saying “the one” is “probably the poppiest song I’ve ever written. I loved the idea of inhabiting this ridiculous arrogant rock star character who has totally fucked their career by writing too many sad songs.”
Previously she shared the album’s first single “i’m not where you are”
Any Human Friend is the follow-up to her 2017-released breakthrough release, sophomore album I’m Not Your Man. Hackman co-produced the album with David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The xx, Let’s Eat Grandma).
In a previous press release Hackman summed up the album this way: “This whole record is me diving into myself and peeling back the skin further and further, exposing myself in quite a big way. It can be quite sexual. It’s blunt, but not offensive. It’s mischievous.”
Hackman added: “I’m a hopeless romantic. I search for love and sexual experience, but also I’m terrified by it.”
Hackman is unabashed about tackling these themes, even if her only family is a little less enthused. “I sent ‘all night’ to my parents and they were quite shocked,” she said in the press release. “Why does it sound shocking coming out of my mouth? Women have sex with each other, and it seems to me we aren’t as freely allowed to discuss that as men are. But at no point am I disrespecting the women I’m having sex with. It can be fucking sexy without banging people over the head with a frying pan. It’s sexy sex.”
Out now on AMF / Sub Pop Published by Transgressive Records Ltd.
It’s very rare that you’ll ever get such an established, talented and all-round beautiful songwriter releasing their debut solo single at such a stage. Josienne Clarke’s collaborations have elevated her to a certain level but she now steps out on her own and to be perfectly candid, she’s shining brighter than ever.
On ‘Things I Didn’t Need’ Josienne Clarke is so hauntingly angelic that you feel as though you’re sucked into her world, feeling what she feels. As though you’re some sort of impersonating body snatcher, it’s so wonderfully poetic and yet heartbreaking at the same time. The acoustic guitar takes a backseat in the track in place for Josienne’s wonderful voice to pull the song through and it ultimately elevates it to easily become one of the folk songs of the year. The release features new song “Things I Didn’t Need” – with barely more than voice and the Twin Peaks-like echoes of her guitar, the focus is centred on the song. Plus two new b-sides that further Clarke’s embracing of a less-is-more approach to her music and a resolve to sing it as she sees it.
B Side ‘Season And Time’ is just as beautiful, creating a world that is represented as being so beautiful but she’s just running out of “notes” to describe her feelings for her love and it’s so beautifully told it’s almost self-insulting for her to refer to music as “singing is just talking to a tune” and ultimately that is how personal these songs feel to the listener, as if Josienne is speaking directly to them, telling her own personal tale in, sometimes, a hauntingly dark way. It’s truly wonderful.
Track listing
A- Things I Didn’t Need, B1- Season And Time, B2- Never Lie
“Smoke Inside”, the crunchy blues waltz from Australian singer-songwriter Harmony Byrne, is definitely worth a listen this week. The track is taken from Byrne’s upcoming album Heavy Doors and features her amazing voice alongside some really slick production.
“As a child I was told that I was a drama queen,” Harmony Byrne says of the track. “Initially, I mistook this as being a negative aspect of my personality and struggled to express myself. But thankfully, I was also taught to have self-worth, honesty, integrity, and that I only ever need be myself in a world full of frauds. “Smoke Inside” is all about valuing who you are, no matter how wild or tame, and that if someone you love doesn’t let you light up inside, then they are not the match for you.”
Harmony Byrne – “Smoke Inside” (Official Video) “Smoke Inside” from Harmony Byrne’s upcoming debut album, “Heavy Doors”
I’ve loved Maria Taylor for such a long time. She’s a singer/songwriter that came up on Saddle Creek Records at the same time as Conor Oberst. She just knocked me out years ago with this record called 11:11 that I just loved so much. Hew new album In the Next Life came out about a year or two ago. “If Only” is such a beautiful song from it. She sings this double vocal melody on it and it’s so beautiful. It reminds me of Elliott Smith when I hear it. It’s this really simple arrangement of just acoustic guitar and then these little bits of strings and xylophones come in, really sparse, to accentuate the end of it. And then these drums come in with a military building beat and a little arpeggio guitar, but it’s such a great build and a hooky song. I keep seeing it on TV shows, too.
“If Only” music video from Maria Taylor’s forthcoming album, “In the Next Life,” out on Flower Moon Records.
There’s a prevailing image of The Tallest Man of Earth — Swedish folk singer Kristian Matsson’s musical moniker of a wayward, sometimes homesick vagabond in the constant pursuit of adventure.
Gotta say, I really wasn’t expecting to say this, given my love of the previous albums The Wild Hunt and “Shallow Grave”, but The Tallest Man on Earth has possibily just put out the best record of his career (and among my favorite records of 2019 so far). This is, what he should sound like, what he’s been trying to sound like the last few records and didn’t start to really get his footing on until the demo project a few years back and the EP he slowly dripped out last year. There’s an urgency to it, but a considered one, one that comes with time and heartbreak and rebuilding your life and figuring out what exactly matters. It’s lush in all the right ways and at all the right times, and bare in all the right ways at all the right times, and a combo of the two in all the right ways at all the right times. It’s an astoundingly gorgeous and engrossing album, and I’m so glad we finally hear the sound he’s seemingly been chasing for over a decade.
The Tallest Man On Earth’s album ‘I Love You. It’s A Fever Dream.’
If you’ve ever heard an Angie McMahon song, then you’ve heard just how big her voice can be, and how cleverly she can craft a phrase. In person, though, she’s more soft-spoken, her words carefully chosen—the former due to a compromised immune system thanks to a pretty hectic touring schedule. Not that McMahon’s complaining.
The Australian singer-songwriter is on one of her rare visits to the United States, where she just wrapped her first U.S. tour, which included several headlining gigs, a stop at South by Southwest, and opening for the Pixies in Knoxville. “We had a gig in Nashville that was a headlining show and it was really chill—it was a cool little venue which are the most fun to play,” she said. “And then we drove three hours to Knoxville to open for the Pixies at the Tennessee theater, which is this giant old cinema from the ‘20s. It was amazing. I’ve found the crowds really attentive. The hardest gig that we’ve played was the Australian South By showcase, because Australians are very chatty. That took a lot of energy. But mostly, the crowds have been so nice.
If you didn’t get the chance to check out McMahon or if you’ve never even heard of her at all, that’s soon about to change. Today, she’ll roll out her latest U.S.-released single, the crowd favorite “Slow Mover,” making the States aware of what Australia already knew: McMahon could be the next big thing.
Only in her mid-twenties, McMahon has been playing music since she was a teenager. “I started covering pop songs,” she explained. “I was really obsessed with female single-songwriters, but I would also cover like Maroon 5 or Bon Iver. I started uploading them to the Internet, and thank God they are taken down now, because they were not good. I just really love doing that in school, and I started taking singing lessons which didn’t last very long. After I left school, I joined a soul band and that was really good practice to play gigs and learn how to deal with crowds. I got sick of being around boys and the loudness, so I went back to doing my own thing.”
Over the past few years, she’s released a string of singles in her home country, and toured the area several times over. Soon, she’ll release her first full album, to be named Salt, which by McMahon’s own account, has been a long time in the making. “I wanted to take my time with making a record, so some of those songs are written a year or three ago. I feel like they’ve lived several lives,” she said. “It was probably a good thing, because it gave me time to feel good about my decisions. Because this is my first record, I didn’t want to fuck it up or rush it.”
Fans of the singer are already familiar with some of the songs that will appear on the album, including last year’s “Missing Me” and crowd favorite “Pasta,” which McMahon has taken to introducing by simply saying, “This is a song about pasta.”
“It’s about being tired and being down on yourself, but it’s easier for me to be like, ‘This a song about pasta.’” McMahon clarified with a laugh. “Now it’s a joke, though, so I should probably dial it back and be like, ‘I’m a serious songwriter.’ But it’s good to have humor. Even this industry can be sort of harrowing and I don’t want to lose this sense of humor that I have in my writing.”
She’s also trying to keep her stamina up, as well, thanks to a pretty busy schedule leading up to the album that includes a European tour and a stop at London’s All Points East festival alongside The Strokes and Interpol. “I’m trying not to get too burnt out,” she said. Luckily, there’s nothing like the adrenaline of releasing your first album—and what comes next—to keep you going. “I want to give this one away and have people enjoy it,” she said. “I’m ready to pass it on, so I can wash the slate clean creatively. And I’m excited to write new ones.”
The young singer-songwriter’s sophomore album is a gorgeous work of textured indie folk that generously gives space to her fluttering vocals; it soothes and enchants in equal measure. recorded on four track tape at producer Ethan John’s house – the result is an honest, imperfection-speckled album from an artist unbothered by the idea of achieving a flawless gloss. if you’re a fan of artists like Julia Jacklin, Haley Heynderickx, or Nadia Reid , you owe it to yourself to hear this! “this collection of softly sung songs forms nothing short of a gentle and reserved masterpiece”
Billie Marten: Feeding Seahorses By Hand (Live Album) – BBC York Feeding Seahorses By Hand, the album out now
Sardonic and self-aware as ever, Donnelly’s “Die” offers a chipper outlook on the passing fear we’ve all experienced numerous times, most often while driving to work or enjoying an afternoon al fresco: Holy shit, I’m gonna die one day.Donnelly is the victim with a knife to the heart, the frantic nurse trying to administer a shot, the hearse driver; she’s dead, seemingly portraying a fallen runaway bride waiting to be buried alive. (Have we also mentioned that there’s a tuxedo-sporting dog? .
“Stella told us she wrote ‘Die’ as a song for her to run to,” the directors explain. “There’s a stark contrast between the title of the song and its actual mood and musicality. We wanted to make a video that complemented the upbeat spirit while still touching on the idea of death. Couldn’t have done it without our dog Thinly.”
Donnelly’s “Die” comes from the Perth native’s stunning 2019 debut, Beware of the Dogs. The upbeat, ‘80s dancercise cadence of “Die” stands out from the rest of the 13-song affair (“I’m just as shocked as you that it’s on there,” fusing elements of pop, folk and rock for storytelling that’s as empathetic as it is in-your-face. “You know that I love you / Wanna buy you more shit / But I can’t afford it,” Donnelly laments. It’s the kind of self-awareness that demands a visual with camp and absurdity, and deliver camp and absurdity it does. Donnelly offers more camp in the video’s three-minute, 11-second run-time she deserves an invite next year as compensation. Thinly deserves one, too.
“Die” by Stella Donnelly off ‘Beware of the Dogs,’ out now on Secretly Canadian Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 